Manufacturing

SIEMENS STROMBERG-CARLSON laid off five employees at its Lake Mary plant, the company reported Monday. Those affected are clerical employees. No manufacturing employees were affected, said company spokesman Robert Bartolotta. Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, a telephone switching equipment manufacturer, employs about 1,900 people in Lake Mary.

Edgewood police say someone broke into the historic Randall Knives Co. manufacturing plant two weeks ago and made off with a half dozen knives. The suspects also placed a shotgun and rifle outside, apparently intending to steal them but were chased away by approaching police and left them behind, said police Sgt. Ronald Beardslee. The guns were the property of an employee, according to a police report, and were returned to him. Police also recovered two Randall knives, each worth $400, outside but near the plant on Holden Avenue and South Orange Blossom Trail.

BIG GAIN. Production efficiency in American manufacturing advanced by 5.2 percent in 1984, the biggest increase in nine years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The all-purpose productivity gauge measures the volume of money and labor put into U.S. business enterprises. Output in manufacturing rose by 10.5 percent, the biggest increase since 1973, while output per unit of capital invested in business rose 9.6 percent, the biggest increase in 34 years. Analysts said the figures suggest that U.S. manufacturers, hurt by foreign imports, are trying to adjust by becoming more efficient.

Orlando entrepreneur Ken Church said his first brush with 3-D printing came years ago when he used a tiny laser beam to put an antenna on the head of an ant. At the time, he hoped the federal government would find a national-security use for it, said Church, president of nScript Inc. "We were so excited, we thought we were going to get rich," he said. "But when we tried to sell it, nobody was buying. It was like the opposite of 'Field of Dreams.' We built it, but nobody came.

Following are some of the incidents recently reported to area police agencies and the Lake County Sheriff's Office. This information was compiled from public records maintained by those agencies. The Police Log is published Thursdays in the Lake section. County Bay Tree Lane , 26000 block, near Paisley, Nov. 24. Officers arrested a resident on a charge of resisting an officer without violence. Akron Street , 1500 block, near Leesburg, Nov. 25. Officers arrested a resident on a charge of selling cocaine.